One goal left for Saints

This season has been like a track race for Tyler Harper and the
St. Scholastica football team.

The Saints stumbled over their first hurdle, suffering a
season-opening loss at Whitworth. But since then, they have cruised
to nine consecutive wins.

Now there is one final obstacle between St. Scholastica and
their season goal— winning the program's first playoff
game.

The Saints will get that opportunity after defeating rival
Greenville, 27-21, Saturday to win the UMAC championship outright
and reach the postseason for the third year in a row.

Last year the Saints made the NCAA Division III playoff field.
After tying Greenville and Northwestern (Minn.) they received the
conference's automatic bid by winning a random draw.

“Last year, as you can probably imagine, it was pretty
nerve-wracking sitting on that bus and knowing that there are three
teams in that hat and any one of them could be drawn. We were
blessed that we were the ones that were drawn,” Harper said.
“This year, we really didn't want to take that chance to be
the team not drawn. We wanted to go out and win it
outright.”

Harper played a key role in St. Scholastica's win, completing
18-of-30 passes for a career high 274 yards.

“The defense came out and had a couple key stops and gave
us momentum,” Harper said. “We had some wide receivers
make some good routes. Offensive linemen stepped up because they're
a pretty blitz-heavy team.

“We just kind of worked as a unit,” he continued.
“It all just kind of played together. We kept feeding off
each other.”

Harper had a hand in all three touchdowns the Saints scored in a
21-point second quarter. Trailing by seven after one period, the
St. Scholastica quarterback threw a 43-yard touchdown to Cory
Gebhard and hooked up with Josh Simmons for a 75-yard strike.

“Josh Simmons is a pretty fast fella. He just had a really
good post route, and I just had to put it out there where he could
go get it,” Harper said. “Once he caught it, there's no
catching him.”

Then as the first half expired, Harper scrambled for an 8-yard
touchdown run to give the Saints a 21-7 lead that they would not
relinquish.

“Tyler did a great job Saturday. We knew they were going
to stack the box to try and shut down our good running back Jake
Jensen, so we felt like we were going to have to throw the ball
some,” CSS coach Greg Carlson said. “Tyler did a great
job recognizing the coverages, finding the open receiver and making
a good throw. I think he hurt them a little bit with his feet
too.”

The win at Francis Field was one of several key road victories
for St. Scholastica this season. The Saints also picked up wins at
Eureka, Northwestern (Minn.), and Crown — all of which
finished in the top half of the league.

“Basically, we played the next four best teams on their
field. It's a credit to our kids to be able to win on the road the
way they have been,” Carlson said. “We've been a good
road team. The last three years, we have not lost a conference game
on the road.”

“We had to go down and play some pretty good teams at
their home field,” Harper added. “It took a lot of hard
work.”

Carlson credited Harper for some of the team's success, noting
his quarterback has cut down on mistakes and has made better
choices when throwing the ball.

“He's very competitive, deeply absorbs the offense but
he's a little bit of a riverboat gambler,” Carlson said.
“We've been working with him to make better decisions, cut
down on turnovers. And in the second half of the season he's done
much, much better in both those categories.”

Harper threw three interceptions in the team's loss to
Whitworth. He has improved since then, raising his completion
percentage to 59.4. He has thrown 16 touchdowns to seven
interceptions since Week 1.

“For that first game of the year, we were all kind of
nervous. We lost a few guys on offense and defense from last year.
It was the longest road trip we ever had,” Harper said.
“We were able to see where our strengths were as a team and
where our weaknesses were. We were able to kind of build off those
and set the tone for the beginning of the conference
season.”

“I think we came back to campus knowing that it's never
going to be easy — there's more that we can do on gameday
than we did up there,” Carlson added. “It did kind of
refocus the football team.”

Now the team can focus on its preseason goal. The fledgling
program that began in 2008 will try for its first playoff win. The
Saints will find out who they play after this weekend, but
regardless of who it is, they will approach it with the same
attitude.

“It's going to probably be our toughest opponent of the
year,” Harper said. “We're just going to try and treat
this like we treated Greenville — just like we treated
Eureka. It's just a business trip.”

Conference
champs

Conference races are wrapping up and a few automatic playoff
berths have been secured in the West Region.

Bethel became the outright MIAC champion after handing St. Olaf
a 47-0 drubbing to stay unbeaten on the season. The win guaranteed
the Royals a share of the championship and a playoff berth, but
they won it outright when Concordia-Moorhead fell to St. Thomas,
34-20. Now the Cobbers and Tommies are tied with St. John’s
at 7-2 overall and 5-2 in MIAC play.

Redlands clinched a share of the SCIAC crown. The Bulldogs (6-2
overall, 6-0 SCIAC) are one game ahead of Chapman in the standings,
but own the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Panthers, securing the
conference’s playoff bid.

Likewise, UW-Whitewater and Linfield have punched tickets to the
postseason with shares of the WIAC and NWC conference titles,
respectively. The Warhawks have a one-game lead and own tiebreakers
over UW-Oshkosh and UW-Platteville while Linfield has a half-game
advantage over Pacific Lutheran with a head-to-head win over the
Lutes.

Wartburg knows it will claim at least a share of the IIAC
championship following a slim 16-14 win over Central this weekend.
However the Knights need to win at Loras or have Coe lose on
Saturday to grab the conference’s playoff
position.

The rest of the West

Whittier snapped an eight-game losing streak dating back to last
season by topping Occidental 59-52. Steven Rivera threw a touchdown
and rushed for another in the fourth quarter to help the Poets pick
up their first win of the season. Rivera finished the game 17-of-25
for 314 yards and four touchdowns. … Bobby Brown’s
4-yard run as time expired lifted Buena Vista to an upset victory
over IIAC rival Simpson, 34-32. Brown passed for 377 yards and
three touchdowns to lift the Beavers’ to their third straight
win after starting the season 0-6. … Pacific Lutheran
overcame four turnovers to defeat Whitworth 28-21. The Lutes
finished the season 8-1 overall and 5-1 in Northwest Conference
play after scoring a pair of late touchdowns to hold off the
Pirates. … Jack Kaiser rushed for 134 yards and three
touchdowns, leading St. Thomas past MIAC foe Concordia-Moorhead.
… Blake Robles threw two touchdown passes – including
a 70-yard strike to Dorrell Baugh – and Tyler Winders kicked
a 26-yard field goal to lift Eureka over Crown, 17-14. Robles, who
completed 33-of-44 passes for 320 yards, finished the season with a
school record 215 completions. … Adolpho Pacheco rushed for
139 yards and a touchdown to help UW-Stout survive a scare from
winless UW-River Falls, 19-18. Jesse McKune scored on a 1-yard run
for the Falcons, but the ensuing point after failed.

Rank ’em

A total of 13 teams in the West Region were recognized in this
week’s Top 25 poll. The West has seven teams in the Top 25,
including five top-10 teams.

Linfield picked up an additional first place vote this week as
the Wildcats remain ranked No. 2 nationally.

UW-Whitewater leap-frogged Bethel in the poll. The Warhawks are
No. 5 while the Royals sit at No. 6.

UW-Oshkosh stayed put at No. 8 while rival UW-Platteville moved
up one spot to No. 11.

Pacific Lutheran and St. Thomas both rose two spots to Nos. 13
and 18, respectively.

Concordia-Moorhead dropped out of the Top 25 this week, but
still received 26 votes. Willamette (25), Redlands (22), St.
John’s (22), Wartburg (4) and Coe (2) also received votes
this week.

Number of the week

99 – as in the number of yards in Justin Howard’s
record-setting kickoff return in UW-Whitewater’s 17-7 win at
UW-Stevens Point Saturday. Howard – who also averaged 30.5
yards on a pair of punt returns – finished the game with 160
total return yards and broke the school’s record for longest
kick return. He helped UW-W secure at least a share of its 33rd
WIAC championship, which ties UW-La Crosse for the most in league
history.

Looking ahead

No. 6 UW-Oshkosh hosts No. 10 UW-Platteville with a trip to the
playoffs likely on the line. Both teams enter the game with one
loss apiece. A year ago, the Titans won the WIAC title for the
first time in 36 years and made their NCAA D-III playoff debut,
advancing to the national semifinals. Meanwhile UW-P is looking to
make the NCAA D-III playoffs for the first time.

Be heard

Do you have a story idea for the Around the West column? Contact
me about approaching milestones, broken records, break-out players
or any other storylines in the West. Or just drop me a note and let
me know what you like or don’t about the column. All ideas
and feedback are welcome. Email me at josh.smith@d3sports.com or
follow me on Twitter at @DU_Josh_Smith.

Josh Smith has covered Division III sports for more than five years. He writes for multiple publications, including D3football.com beginning in 2012. He has won multiple awards for reporting and photography and lives in southern Wisconsin near UW-Whitewater, where he graduated with a degree in print journalism.